


Celes

by eternal_song



Series: Blood Red Valerian [2]
Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Ceres Country, Gen, Growing Up, LIKE HELLA SPOILERS, Light Angst, Original Fai lives, Siblings, our Fai goes by Yuui, spoilers for Fai's past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-20 13:32:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16556720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternal_song/pseuds/eternal_song
Summary: Celes was a good place to grow up. Yūi finally had a place where he and Fai could be safe and someone who loved them.But it was always going to end the same, wasn't it?





	Celes

**Author's Note:**

> Part 2 of Blood Red Valerian. This might not make sense if you didn't read the first part.

Yūi stood in front of his brother’s bed, staring down at the frail form. They had both, upon arriving in this world, been cleaned, clothed, and given a luxurious bedroom with two large beds. Yūi had then requested the beds be moved closer together. There was no way he could sleep without hearing Fai’s breathing— not tonight. Not for a long time. Fai’s long blonde hair was now clean and soft, spread across the pillow and around his head like a pale golden halo. Yūi reached out to curl a lock around his finger, to reassure himself this was real. They were, for the time being, safe. Now Fai had to wake up.

“Is there anything else you would like done?” Ashura-ō asked from his position in the doorway to the twins’ bedroom. Yūi thought about it as he let Fai’s hair fall back to the pillow.

“I’d like… to cut my hair. Even if it’s only that, I would like some part of me to be with him while I am away.”

“Very well.” Ashura stepped forward and placed a hand between Yūi’s shoulder blades. “Along with your hair… let’s leave something else to keep this precious person company.”

“What…?” Yūi trailed off. No one had ever called him or Fai precious before. Ashura-ō reached into his cloak and pulled out a large egg-shaped stone. It was pale blue in color, the same hue as the twins’ eyes, and was banded with deep purples and greens.

“Fluorite. The guardian stone of all Celes.”

“Fluorite…” Yūi repeated. He’d never heard of the stone before. It was beautiful, though, and he could feel the energy pulsing from within it.

“It shall be a gift to you as well,” Ashura said, “Though not the stone. The name. From this moment forward, you shall be a citizen of Celes; Yūi Fluorite.”

Yūi stared up at the king in wonder.

“And your brother shall be Fai Fluorite. Your name will be a protection to you both.”

Yūi found he couldn’t respond. No one had ever given him or Fai a gift before. To be given something of such obvious importance…

“Why… Why would you do… that for us?” The words kept getting stuck in his throat, all jostling to get out at the same time and held back by the tears which Yūi refused to let fall.

For a moment, Yūi thought Ashura-ō might not answer at all. His expression held such a mixture of sorrow and pity which Yūi had never seen before.

“I have,” he said at last, “A request to make of you. Although it is of a matter far in the future.”

Ashura-ō crouched down on his knees so he was level with Yūi’s face. He took the boy’s bandage-swathed hands in his, the stone clasped between them, and met his eyes. His eyebrows furrowed and a small smile graced his lips.

“Now, cut your hair, Yūi, so it may stay by this precious person of yours,” he said, and closed Yūi’s small fingers around the stone. “As will this stone.”

The king pulled the boy into a hug. Yūi didn’t know what to do, so he held still. Ashura-ō’s arms were warm and firm, and when no harm came to him, Yūi let the stiffness bleed from his body.

“A new day will begin,” Ashura-ō said. Yūi let the stone drop into the man’s lap as he hugged back, closing his eyes and relaxing into the first kind embrace an adult had ever given him.

_ I don’t care how hard or painful it gets, _ he thought,  _ I will live! I won’t die until I fulfill my debt and Fai is free to live on his own! _

He hesitated before remembering what the man in the spacetime rift had said. He forced himself to put the last part into words, if only in his own mind.  _ Even if I must kill with my bare hands! _

* * *

 

That night, Yūi crawled into Fai’s bed as soon as the palace staff left them alone for the night. His hair, braided and cut off at the nape of his neck, now hung in a wreath from the wall above Fai’s head, while the stone lay on the table next to the bed.

Yūi had thought, at first, that he could handle being in a separate bed if he could hear his brother breathing and know he was safe. He had survived this long. He and Fai had been separated by far more than a few feet of cold floor between two warm beds. Surely, he thought, he could sleep soundly like this, knowing they were safe and away from the valley.

This didn’t turn out to be the case. Every time he closed his eyes, he kept seeing his brother falling, hearing “let Yūi go” in both of their voices, feeling the wet splash of blood as his brother hit the snowbank under the tower. How could he have been so selfish? How could he think that he could live if it came at the cost of his brother?

Fai’s arm had been shattered because it hit hard stone instead of snow. Yūi thought about the sight of the bone peeking out through the flesh and felt sick. He knew his brother would be dead if he’d hit his head and torso on that same stone— was it only dumb luck which had saved him? Yūi shuddered and snuggled in closer to Fai’s warmth, marveling at the fact that no visible injuries remained. The man had kept his word, and Fai was alive and in stable condition. So why didn’t he wake?

Yūi searched his memory for anything else the man with the bat sigil may have told him. He had also said something about magical feathers, and giving one to Fai to revive him, but Yūi didn’t understand all the man had told him. He didn’t remember if the man had cursed him a second time, or if he’d been speaking in metaphor. Did it really matter, though? Fai was the most important thing. If Yūi needed these feathers to wake Fai and fulfill his end of the bargain, he would find them. He wouldn’t fail.

Of all the things the man had foretold, Yūi was most worried about the other child. The Witch’s pawn. He sounded dangerous, and Yūi hoped he would grow strong enough to face him, should the need come. It was difficult to imagine that he would ever be able to, though. He was so weak, both in body and resolve. The man had criticized him, saying he had no right to balk at the idea of killing a stranger after choosing to kill his own twin.

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” he whispered into Fai’s chest. “But I almost killed you, Fai. Maybe I am a murderer.”

_ If I ever have to kill, _ he thought,  _ It will be to protect Fai. From now on, everything I do will be for Fai. _

He had nearly taken his own brother’s life, after all. It seemed fitting he should dedicate his to atoning for such a sin.

Fai’s steady breaths and warmth against him allowed Yūi to relax, and he eventually drifted off into the first warm and restful sleep he’d had in what felt like decades.

* * *

 

Life in Celes was cold, but the people were kind. They seemed to have no knowledge of the fact that twins bring misfortune, and though Yūi felt guilty about it, he didn’t tell them. Someday he would leave this country, and until that time he would do his best to protect her people from the calamity he knew would eventually follow him. Under Ashura-ō’s instruction, Yūi applied his talents tirelessly to the study of magecraft. When not with the king, he could often be found in Luval Castle’s library, reading about all of the spells he didn’t yet have the skill to cast. Every night, he slept next to Fai, reassured by his steady breathing.

Whatever magics the strange man had used to heal Fai’s injuries also kept him from wasting away any further than he already had in the valley, and the potions and sustenance the castle healers had managed to pour down his throat had done him good. As time passed, his skin lost its papery texture and sallow color, and his cheeks had become a little less hollow. The healers all fretted about the fact that he still didn’t wake. Yūi didn’t tell them he knew why, and how to wake him. He hadn’t even told Ashura-ō all about what had happened when Fai fell from the tower, and the king seemed to respect his need to keep his secrets close.

When Fai woke, Yūi would tell him about everything. All he had to do now was grow stronger for his eventual journey and wait to find the magical feathers.

* * *

 

Years passed, and the people of Celes soon called upon Yūi to use his magic for issues not solvable by conventional methods. He became renowned as the most powerful wizard in Celes. The people marveled at his skill, and rumors spread about him being the youngest wizard to ever achieve the illustrious “D” ranking. He and Ashura-ō knew better, however. Though neither of them could say for certain how long he and Fai had been locked in that cursed valley, he knew from the length of his brother's hair and the ache in his soul that he was far older than he appeared.

When an impending avalanche threatened the town in the valley below Luval Castle, Yūi managed to arrive on the path it would take in time for the first chunks of snow to break loose from the largest drifts. He stared up the mountain slope, readying his staff as the snow shifted. One more chunk broke free. Another. And then the entire mountainside was moving, roaring down at him. He raised his staff and sent out a pulse of magic as the wall of snow came upon him. Parting around him like water on the prow of a boat, the snow diverted in two different paths and missed the town entirely. Yūi breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his staff. The mountain sun shone upon the landscape in front of him. He peered out onto the field of snow before him, now smooth and settled. As his eyes roved over the landscape, they caught on something tall sticking out. Another chunk of snow broke off and exposed a tall pillar of crystalline ice. Yūi squinted at it. Inside it…

“Is that…?” he whispered aloud. “The memory… feathers?”

Yūi held out his hand and felt for their magic with his own. As the two powers brushed each other, the two feathers drifted out from within the crystal as if it were made of liquid water. He had to stop his body from recoiling at the sheer, raw power which the memory shards contained. They floated through the air and he caught them. Why feathers, he had to wonder? And how powerful was this mysterious desert princess the man had spoken of, to have such raw energy contained within only two shards of her soul?

“They hold incredible power, as he said…” Yūi murmured. He held one up, marveling at its beauty. “This one goes to Fai…”

He trailed off. How would this feather heal his brother? Would it absorb into Fai’s magic? Would it lay dormant within him? And what would they do, should the princess need it back?

Yūi cut his mind off from that line of thought. He had the other feather for the journey. Surely the princess and the others would understand how important Fai was, and why he needed the feather.

“I wonder what kind of people they’ll be…” he tried to imagine what sort of person would go on such a journey. A princess whose soul was scattered in pieces throughout the multiverse. A clone of a real human, made for the sole purpose of finding those pieces. Another child, destined to oppose Yūi.

Before he could get too lost in imagination, he made himself stop. It didn’t matter to him, did it? Fai was the only thing he could afford to care about. They wouldn’t be the same sort of person Yūi was, regardless of whether they traveled together or not. The princess would have to do without one small piece of her soul until Yūi could figure out a more permanent solution.

The idea crossed his mind that he may have to trade his own life for Fai’s as a replacement for the feather. It was, somehow, not as horrifying as it should have been.

When Yūi entered the town to ensure everyone was all right, they surprised him with joyous chorus of thank-yous. The shouts startled him out of his thoughts, and he stared wide-eyed at all of the people who seemed… happy to see him. He felt he may never get used to that.

“I knew wizards with the title ‘D’ are amazing, but…” said a tall woman standing next to him. She trailed off, gesturing around her to make her point. Yūi turned his eyes down to his shuffling feet, uncomfortable with the praise.

“It was nothing,” he mumbled to her. “I’m happy no one was hurt.”

He headed for the road towards the castle, leaving the people to their celebrating. He was eager to get to Fai and give him the feather. Soon, his brother would wake, and he wanted nothing more than to see it happen.

Before he could leave, however, he felt a small tug on his cloak. He paused and looked down into the chubby face of a young girl.

“Thank you!” she chirped, her freckled cheeks dimpling with her smile. “But I’d be even more grateful if you’d smile!”

Before Yūi could respond, however, the girl’s mother rushed over and scolded the girl while apologizing to him for the bother.

“It’s all right,” he reassured her. He crouched down, cloak pooling around his legs he addressed the girl. “I was never good at smiling. I never had any practice.”

The little girl didn’t seem put off by this at all. If anything, she grew more insistent.

“Well, you can start practicing now!” As Yūi watched, she somehow managed to smile even wider. “Like this, see?”

The long walk back to Luval castle gave Yūi time to wonder about the girl’s words. Why was it so important to her that he smile? For so long, he had been told he only existed to be unhappy and bring others the same. To have someone insist so fervently otherwise was… strange. Ashura-ō had only ever been gentle in his assertions that Yūi was safe and cared for, but sometimes even that much kindness became too much for him to handle.

Fai would be better at it. He had always been the calmer of the two, and he was still Yūi’s anchor. Fai would smile more freely, Yūi was sure. Now he had the feather, Fai would soon wake, and Yūi could see his brother’s smile again after so long. His steps sped up as he hurried to the castle.

The guards who greeted him at the door were both familiar with him. They often greeted him as he left for his magical errands and as he returned. Today they were arguing good-naturedly about the day’s harsh winter chill. Despite himself, Yūi let out a small laugh at their banter.

“You— You laughed!” one of them shouted, as the other gave a loud “woah” of surprise. Yūi shrunk back a little.

“Did I do it wrong?” Laughing was another thing he’d never had the opportunity to practice before his arrival in Celes.

“No! You did fine!” one of them said, spreading his arms out in amazement. The other one bent over to look Yūi in the eye.

“You should laugh a whole lot more!” he said. “I’m sure it will make Ashura-ō happy to see it!”

Yūi stared at him in shock before turning his face down towards his shuffling feet.

“Ashura-o would…?” Did Ashura-ō want Yūi to laugh more? He’d never said anything about it. Then again, the king had barely asked anything of him since he’d mentioned his wish during their first meeting.

Perhaps it was time for Yūi to ask him about it.

Yūi made his way to the reception hall first. Ashura-ō always wanted to know he had returned safely from his errands, and it wouldn’t do to keep the king waiting. Fai could wait a little longer.

“I’m back,” Yūi announced, walking through the enormous double doors of the hall. Inside, Ashura-ō stood next to his throne. The tall man was regal and poised on his place on the dias, but his face was gentle as he greeted his ward.

“Welcome home. It seems you have prevented the avalanche from harming the valley.”

Yūi tilted his head at the king in confusion.

“How did you…” he asked.

“I know,” Ashura-ō said. His face was placid, but his words rang with absolute certainty. “You could be far away, even in another world, and I would know. I know your magic.”

Yūi stared at the king, holding himself back from shuffling his feet. There was a stirring of unease curling in his gut at the words.

“It’s true, Yūi!” Ashura-ō insisted. “You could be wandering around, lost on some far-off world, and I would come for you.”

Yūi should have felt grateful. As he clutched his staff and stared down at his feet, he knew he should be thanking Ashura-ō for always being so kind to him. Instead, he felt overwhelmed. He owed so much to this man, and yet he asked for nothing in return.

Taking a deep breath, Yūi looked back up at the king. The man who had saved him.

“What am I supposed to do for you?” he asked. “What is the request you had for me?”

Ashura-ō’s brow furrowed and his smile fell a little bit. Why did he look so sad at Yūi’s question? Surely he should have been happy to at last tell the boy he had saved how to repay such a debt.

“Do you… love Celes?” the king asked in lieu of answering.

“Ashura-ō?” Yūi asked. He didn’t understand where this was going.

“Do you love this country?” Ashura-ō pressed. Yūi hesitated before answering.

“I do,” he said. Of course he did. Why did Ashura-ō need to ask? “Everyone in the country is nice. Besides… nobody seems to mind that I live here.”

that part was the most difficult to understand. How could all of the citizens of this country not think he, who was a powerful wizard and a cursed twin besides, should be cast out?

Ashura-ō nodded, face grave.

“And so, if something were to happen to this country, you would use your power to help her, correct?”

Yūi wanted to agree, but he remembered the curse which the man with the bat sigil had placed on him in the valley. He gripped his staff tighter and tried to keep his voice from shaking.

“If someone came to this country,” he said slowly, “Who had more power than I do…”

It was something he worried about often, in the dead of night when not even Fai’s steady breathing could calm his fearful mind.

“You are cursed to kill such a person, are you not?” Ashura-ō didn’t sound like he needed confirmation. Yūi knew he shouldn’t be surprised his king somehow knew about the curse, but he still felt his eyes widen.

What else did Ashura-ō know?

“I am not the one to break that curse,” the king said. Yūi looked up and watched magic swirling around his outstretched palm. “However, I believe I can suppress it. Your magical power grows stronger the more you use it.”

Yūi thought he remembered his uncle saying something about that before sentencing him and Fai to imprisonment in the valley. It had been part of the reason the king of Valeria had been so desperate to get them into a place where they couldn’t use their magic.

“Yet, if this were affixed to your person—” above Ashura-ō’s palm an intricate sigil floated “— this pattern would prevent your power from growing greater than it is now. And it would do so until it vanishes.”

Yūi took a good look at the sigil. It was shaped from many curving and intersecting lines, forming the image of a phoenix. It was beautiful. His gaze flickered between it and the king’s face, searching for an explanation.

“Also, were I to die,” Ashura-ō continued, his voice much quieter, “it would lose its effectiveness.”

“Die?” Yūi shouted, distracted from the sigil. “How would…”

He couldn’t fathom how so great a king and mage as Ashura-ō could die. What could possibly have enough power to kill him?

“Everyone dies at some point,” the king said. Yūi continued to stare at him, struggling to form words.

Yūi knew death more intimately than almost anyone. He knew everyone dies. But being reminded here, by the one man who made him feel safe from such a thing…

“What I want from you,” Ashura said, “is that you eliminate anyone who brings death and destruction to the people of this country. No matter who that person may be.”

The hard look which had come into the king’s face made Yūi hesitate.

“Your majesty…?” He asked, tentative and soft. At the sound of his voice, Ashura-ō’s gentle smile returned.

“That is what I wish of you.”

Yūi didn’t have to think about his response. After years of wondering, he had his answer to how he would repay Ashura-ō’s kindness. And if he had to kill someone to do it… well. He was aware of the fact that, willing or not, he had the capacity to kill. He had already sworn to do it to protect Fai. Protecting Celes was little different.

“I’ll do it.” Yūi stood straight and looked his king in the eye, trying to show Ashura-ō his determination. “For as long as I exist on this world!”

The king crouched down to eye level and took Yūi’s hands in his.

“Thank you, Yūi.”

* * *

 

The skin of Yūi’s back still tingled where Ashura-ō had placed the phoenix sigil as he walked. He made his way as quickly as he could to the bedroom where Fai lay. Soon, he would give Fai the feather, and Fai would awaken.

The room was dark when he entered. The fire was banked low in the hearth, and the curtains were drawn to shut out as much of the cold air as possible. With quick, efficient movements, he stripped off his heavy coat and let it fall onto his unused bed. After a brief search, Yūi found a candle in the bedside table drawer and lit it with a small spark of magic.

“I’m back, Fai,” he murmured. There was no response, of course.

Yūi took a deep breath and drew one of the feathers out of the folds of his coat. It shone in the dim room, bathing his hand in a soft white glow. With hesitant steps he walked over to where Fai lay. 

“Please,” he whispered, releasing the feather over his brother’s body. It hovered in the air, then sank into Fai’s chest. The air rippled as it did so, passing through the blankets as though they were water. The glow suffused Fai’s whole body before slowly fading.

A second passed.

Then another.

Yūi held his breath, tension radiating through his body as he waited. Hope warred with despair in his chest. What if it didn’t work?

Fai’s breath hitched. His eyelids fluttered, and he blinked them open. Yūi’s breath rushed out in relief. At the sound, Fai’s eyes flicked over to him, and he turned his head as he seemed to recognize who he was seeing.

“Yūi?” he rasped out. His voice was weak and rough from disuse. “Where…?”

A sound like a sob mixed with a cry of pain tore its way out of Yūi’s throat, and he threw his arms around his brother’s shoulders, pulling him up from the pillow. Weak though he was, Fai managed to raise his shaking hands and place them around his brother’s shoulders.

“Fai!” Yūi cried, not holding back his tears for once. “Fai, you’re awake. I’ve missed you so much.”

“What happened?” Fai asked, still sounding groggy and parched. “How long have I been asleep? And where are we?”

Yūi pulled away only enough to look him in the eye.

“We’re safe,” he assured his brother. “Ashura-o, the king of this country, saved us from the valley.”

Fai nodded, expression wan and tired. His glassy eyes searched Yūi’s, taking in all of the changes on his twin’s face. Yūi straightened and helped Fai sit up, piling pillows between him and the headboard. He then poured Fai a glass of water from the pitcher on the washbasin. Handing it over, he watched avidly as his brother took a few slow sips. Fai swallowed, coughed, and set the cup aside.

“How long?” was the first thing he said after clearing his throat. His voice sounded a little stronger. Yūi bit his lip.

“… A few years,” he said. Fai’s eyes widened, and Yūi watched as he processed that information. Then Fai nodded.

“I don’t remember much… there was a man talking to me, and I remember falling from the tower… but I don’t know how it happened. Did- did that man try to kill me? How am I still alive?” Fai’s face grew pale and his eyes widened as he tried to recall what had happened to him, and Yūi’s heart broke a little more for him. Could Yūi tell his brother he had almost killed him?

“That man…” he paused, chewed on his lip again, and continued. “I don’t know why he was there, or what exactly he did. But when I begged him to save your life, he did.”

Fai’s gaze sharpened and he returned his full focus to Yūi.

“At what cost?” he whispered. “Yūi, what did you have to pay for my life?”

_ Not enough, _ Yūi thought.  _ Anything I have to give is worth it if it’s to save you. _

“One day, I will have to go on a journey,” he said instead. “To retrieve feathers made of a princess’s memory, like this one.” Yūi fished the other feather from his coat and handed it to his brother. Fai held it reverently, turning it over and running a finger across the pattern emblazoned on the glowing filaments. “I found two earlier today, and used one to finally awaken you.”

Fai looked back up at him, eyes narrowing as his gaze sharpened.

“Yūi, these are powerful. And if they belong to the princess, then you can’t just use one on me. What happens when she needs it back?”

“The man told me I would find these, and to use one on you.” Yūi felt his jaw tighten. “She will have to do without one until we can find another solution.”

“And if we can’t?”

“We  _ will. _ ”

Fai sighed and laid his head back against the pillow, gazing at the ceiling. Yūi let him gather his thoughts.

“Tell me everything,” he said after a long silence. Yūi nodded and took Fai’s hand in his. For the first time in years, Fai held his hand in return. He could feel his brother’s pulse beneath the scarred skin of his fingertips, and he had to bite back more tears.

Yūi told his brother all that the man had told him about their journey. He told Fai about what had happened after his fall from the tower, and how Ashura-ō had come for them. He talked about their first night in the country, about giving his hair and the stone to Fai, and how he couldn’t sleep unless he was beside his twin. He told Fai about living in Celes, learning magic with the king, and saving the town from the avalanche earlier today. Lastly, he told Fai about the seal, newLY placed on the skin of his back, and removed his shirt to show it off. When Fai’s fingers traced over the lines of the phoenix, he shivered a little. It had been  _ so long _ .

Yūi didn’t tell Fai it was his fault he’d fallen from the tower.

“There’s one last thing,” Yūi admitted. He didn’t want to say it, because he knew it would upset Fai, but he was already keeping one secret from his brother. He could hide everything from the rest of the world, but not Fai. Lying to Fai felt like the worst kind of betrayal. “That man… put a curse on me.”

Fai’s hand stilled, and Yūi bit his lip, waiting for the anger he was sure would come. When Fai remained silent, Yūi forced his mouth to keep talking.

“If I ever meet someone with more magical power than I possess, then…” He took a deep breath, and another, “then I will be forced to kill them.”

He bowed his head, fists clenched into the fabric of his pants. Fai’s hand reached out and brushed his wrist.

“Yūi, look at me,” his brother asked, and Yūi was powerless to do anything else but comply. To his surprise, there was no anger in Fai’s blue gaze. They only held a deep sadness.

“Yūi, I’m sorry,” Fai said. Yūi blinked. What could Fai possibly have to apologize for? “I’m so sorry you had to go through that. I’m sorry you had to give up so much to save me. And I’m sorry I almost left you all alone.”

A small, sad smile teased at the corner of Fai’s mouth. There was no mirth in the expression.

“All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. To escape from that place. I wish it hadn’t happened the way it did, but I’m so grateful we’re both alive.” Fai took Yūi’s hand and pulled his brother into a hug. “Thank you for saving me, Yūi.”

Yūi hugged his brother as tightly as he dared, weeping into his shoulder. He wouldn’t have had to save his brother if he hadn’t made the decision to let him die in the first place. He didn’t deserve Fai’s gratitude. 

“Don’t leave me,” he begged. Fai’s arms were tight around him, and he could feel hot tears against his bare shoulders.

“Never.”

* * *

 

Fai was initially wary of Ashura-ō, claiming that the feeling of the man’s magic put him on edge. He was still weak, and Yūi rarely left his side for the first few weeks as he struggled to regain his strength. They studied magic together in their room. Yūi brought in many books from the library, including those he had already memorized, and the twins practiced each spell together. Gradually, Fai grew stronger and could accompany Yūi to his lessons with Ashura-ō. Whether it was the shared proximity, or Fai’s respect for the king’s expertise, Yūi wasn’t sure, but Fai gradually grew to trust Ashura-ō as much as Yūi did.

“It’s strange,” Fai observed to Yūi one night as they lay next to each other in bed. Yūi couldn’t bring himself to stop sleeping next to Fai, and Fai didn’t seem to want to sleep apart either. Fai had opted to keep his hair long, and Yūi enjoyed playing with the strands now it was loose from the braid his brother typically wore it in.

“What’s strange?”

“Having… having an adult who… who wants us around.” Fai’s voice was soft and tentative. “Who doesn’t think we’re cursed. Who wants us to be happy.”

Yūi had been feeling that way for years, since Ashura-ō first rescued them.

One day, Ashura-ō found him in the library as he gathered books to bring back to the table he and Fai were studying at. With Yūi’s permission, the king took the top book off the pile and flipped through it.

“I see you have memorized the spells from this book,” he said, fingers hovering over the words on the page.

“Yes,” Yūi admitted. He’d taken it down for Fai, not for his own reading.

“In fact, you have mastered the skills found in nearly all of the castle’s books of magic.”

Yūi looked down at the other book in his arms so he could avoid eye contact with his king. A frown pulled at the corners of his mouth, and he could feel his brows drawing upwards.

“What is it, Yūi?” Ashura-ō asked. “If there is something weighing upon your soul, I would like you to tell me what it is.”

Yūi hesitated before confessing.

“No matter hard I try, I can’t seem to master healing and revivification magic.” Yūi felt shame burning across the back of his neck. He had tried many times to grasp the fundamentals of healing, but it felt like every time he glanced away from the page the words slipped from his mind like dry sand. “All I seem to be capable of memorizing is attack magic… only things which will hurt other people.”

Fai had taken to healing magic immediately, and had long since surpassed his twin in that respect. But Yūi was always destined to be a killer, after all. Perhaps he shouldn’t be surprised.

“Try smiling.”

Yūi looked up at Ashura-ō in surprise.

“Huh?”

“Smile,” Ashura-ō repeated. Yūi felt his cheeks heat up as his eyes skittered back down to his feet, but he thought about the king’s kindness, and how it was such a simple request. He thought about the little girl, and how she had asked him to smile for her on the same day he’d gotten his brother back. He thought of Fai, alive and safe. Then, he looked up at the man who had become something like a father to him and did his best to show his gratitude with the biggest smile he could muster.

“Your magic was successful,” Ashura-ō said. Yūi tilted his head.

“Huh?”

“Your smile, Yūi, has done much to heal my heart. That is a kind of magic as well.”

Yūi had to look down again as he felt a blush spread across his entire face.

“Th-thank you…” he mumbled as Ashura-ō patted him on the head.

* * *

 

Smiling was easier for Yūi after Ashura-ō’s words in the library. He often found himself smiling, even when he didn’t mean it, so he could make Ashura-ō and his brother happy. He didn’t like seeing them worry about him.

Fai’s magical power grew with his skills, until both twins became concerned about him activating Yūi’s curse. When they approached Ashura-ō about it, the king agreed, and placed the same phoenix sigil on Fai’s back on the day his power matched Yūi’s own. Yūi could almost fool himself into believing everything would be ok, until one day when Ashura-ō came to find them in the reception hall.

“You’re here, as I suspected,” the king said. He often found the boys sitting by the pool in the center of the room, watching the ripples on the surface of the deep water.

“Ashura-ō!” they called.

“The people of the town have brought an unusual fruit liquor for us,” the king said, walking closer. “They say it is in thanks for melting the frozen lake.”

“That was kind of them,” Fai said, at the same time Yūi shouted “Liquor!” in delight. Both Fai and Ashura-ō shook their heads at him.

“Yūi, while I approve of how you have come to smile so brightly,” Ashura-ō said, “I’m not sure I approve of your preference for liquor over food,” as though he hadn’t said this exact same thing to Yūi any number of times since he and Fai had been deemed old enough to drink alcohol. Yūi laughed.

“I can’t help it, Celes’s liquor is so good!” he said. When he looked down, however, he froze. He could tell the exact moment when Fai noticed it too.

“Blood?” Yūi gasped, leaping forward to get a better look.

“Your majesty!” Fai was close behind. “Are you hurt!?” 

Ashura-ō raised his blood-soaked hand, inspecting it as though he hadn’t noticed the blood before the twins had pointed it out.

“… No.” was his only reply.

From that point on, strange and worrisome reports trickled in. Citizens would come to talk to the king and his two wards, bringing tales of people ripped apart as if by a beast. After one such report, Yūi could no longer stand it.

“We’ll go,” he declared, gesturing to himself and his twin. He barely heard Ashura-ō’s soft command to wait. “We’ll go and make sure it was truly a beast that did it.”

“Wait.” Ashura-ō’s tone was firmer this time, and though he did not raise his voice, Yūi knew better than to argue.

Yūi didn’t speak of his suspicions to anyone else. If this was only happening now, after the king had brought twins into the country…

“Even more people have died!” he shouted at the king one night. He and Fai had come across a body earlier that day.

“Is that so?” Ashura-ō asked. If Yūi didn’t know the king better, he would be tempted to say he was entirely unconcerned.

“We suspect the beast isn’t from Celes,” Fai added. To their surprise, Ashura-ō shook his head.

“That’s not the case,” he said.

“What?” Yūi asked, drawing back a little. The expression on Ashura-ō’s face was giving him chills.

“It has always existed in Celes.”

Nothing more was said on the subject that night.

* * *

 

Fai gripped Yūi’s hand as they surveyed the carnage around them. The town was slaughtered. Yūi had to fight down bile in his throat as he took in the dead bodies strewn around him, and in his mind he was once again a small child in a cursed valley with no hope of escape. Only Fai’s grip nearly crushing the bones of his hand anchored him to the present.

Yūi’s eyes landed on one body in particular. He knew her face. It was older, and lined with the evidence of the life she had lived, but her freckles and wavy hair were unmistakable.

“No…” he whispered, a single syllable all he could choke out. Slowly, he led Fai over and stood above her.

“Did you know her?” Fai asked. Yūi nodded, trying to force words out past the lump in his throat.

“She— that day. When I found the feathers. She told me she wanted to see me smile, and I couldn’t do it.”

Fai said nothing, pressing in closer, and Yūi gritted his teeth hard enough to make his jaw ache. Without another word he pulled his hand from his brother’s and sprinted in the direction of Luval Castle. He was taking matters into his own hands.

“Yūi!?” Fai cried, running after him. “What are you doing!?”

“What I have to!” Yūi shouted back at him. 

He was panting by the time he reached the castle’s front doors. He barely noted the lack of guards as he threw open the doors and ran inside.

“I am going out to fell that beast!” he shouted, voice echoing in the vast entry hall. “It may take some time, but I will kill it! I can’t stand to see any more of Celes’s good people die!”

Then he fully registered the scene in front of him and halted, backing away a few steps from the dead body in front of him. He heard Fai catch up and stop next to him, panting in exertion. He could tell exactly when his brother realized what they were seeing.

“If so…”

Ashura-ō turned to face them from his position on the stairway amongst a pile of slaughtered guards. There was a splatter of blood on his left cheek. His smile was wide, but his eyes were cold and dead.

“You are saying you must murder me.”

Silence reigned, broken only by Yūi and Fai’s harsh panting and the soft  _ plip plip _ of blood dripping from the king’s hand onto the stone floor.

Softly at first and crescendoing into a roar, voices rang out in Yūi’s head. Voices he hadn’t heard in decades.

_ Yes, twins bring calamity! _

_ They bring unhappiness! _

_ Despair! _

_ They caused the Valerian Sovereign to go insane! _

_ The guilty must be put to death! _

_ IT IS ALL THE FAULT OF THOSE UNHAPPY TWINS! _

Yūi collapsed to his hands and knees, breath growing short.

He should have known.

“Now…” Ashura-ō said, voice calm and musing, “Now that no one is left alive within the castle, perhaps I’ll continue my search outside.”

The king raised his hand higher and watched as the blood dripped from his fingertips.

“My search for someone to murder.”

“Your Majesty!” Yūi shouted, held immobile in his shock.

The sound of his twin’s voice seemed to snap Fai into action, however, because he tugged on Yūi’s arm to pull him up.

“Yūi, we have to go!” he urged, ushering his brother up and out the door. “We have to warn the citizens. Get them out of the country!”

Yūi followed, powerless against the grip his brother had on his arm. Fai was right. They brought this calamity upon the country. It was their responsibility to make sure no one else was killed.

* * *

 

“I see you have allowed Celes’s people to escape to another country,” Ashura-ō said in lieu of a greeting. The twins stood at the base of the stairway leading to the reception hall, gazing up to where the king stood on the landing above them. Dead bodies and fallen columns littered the once-grand space.

“My magic is such that the more people I murder, the stronger it becomes. And soon, it should be stronger than yours, Yūi.”

“Why?” Yūi asked. Fai’s presence beside him kept him steady against the dead look of Ashura-ō’s gaze. He could remember all too well when those eyes had been kind and caring towards them.

“I have no answer for you,” Ashura-ō said. “But it was something I knew would someday happen.”

The last piece clicked in Yūi’s brain, and he felt magic gathering at his fingertips as rage and betrayal rose within him.

“ _ And that’s the whole reason you brought us here!? _ ” he demanded, flying up the stairs as he rushed towards the king. “ _ So when that someday came, you’d have me there to MURDER YOU!? _ ”

He could hear, distantly, his brother’s cries to wait and the masonry crumbling around him, but he paid it no heed. He poured all of his power into the spell he cast. The words within the tendrils of magic flowed around the king and tightened as Yūi trembled from the exertion. Tears pricked in the corners of his eyes as he watched his father figure become entangled in it.

“Ah, that spell. I taught it to you.” Ashura-ō’s voice was as gentle as it had ever been, and some of the previous warmth was filling his eyes again. “Magic used to put someone to sleep.”

Yūi trembled harder, but Fai grabbed him and held him up.

“Magic is not an eternal thing. Given time, I will reawaken.” Ashura-ō sounded like his old self, the madness leaving as the spell took effect. “You are doing nothing but putting off your promise for a little while.”

Yūi sagged in Fai’s arms.

“I can’t do it!” he cried. He didn’t want to be a killer. He would fight destiny on that as hard as he could, for as long as he could.

“The thing which will always inflict the most pain upon you,” Ashura-ō said, succumbing to sleep, “is your own kind-heartedness, Yūi.”

Yūi allowed himself to weep.

* * *

 

The twins placed the king in a magical coffin at the bottom of the pool in the reception hall, and cast upon it the same seal he’d put on their backs years before.

“I know of no spells to heal this kind of madness,” Fai admitted. Yūi could do even less, having no healing ability. The best they could do for their king and father figure was put him to sleep and wish.

“What do we do now?” Fai asked as they helped each other back into their clothing. He gazed at Yūi with deceptive calm. Yūi knew, of course, that this must be the reason for him to embark on his journey.

“I can’t stay in this country any longer.” he said, and Fai’s gaze sharpened. “Nor in this world.”

“You are not leaving me behind.” Fai said, reaching out and grabbing Yūi’s wrist in a death grip.

“It’s my task,” Yūi insisted. “My debt to repay.”

“There’s no point in you paying for my life if you lose me anyway,” Fai said, and there it was. His words cut to the marrow of the issue, leaving nothing for Yūi to hide behind.

Yūi searched his brother’s face, searching for any hint of uncertainty, and finding none. After a long silence, he nodded.

“We’re almost out of time. We need to go.”

They gathered up their staves and shrugged on their heavy outer coats. As Fai tried wringing the last drops of water from his braid, Yūi gazed back at the pool.

“My magic is almost spent,” he said. Fai raised an eyebrow at him. “Can you set a spell to alert us when he wakes?”

Fai nodded and carefully etched the runes in the air. When he’d finished, they stretched over the pool like a glittering purple net.

“At the very least,” Yūi said to the surface of the water, “While you sleep, I hope you have good dreams.”

Fai held out his hand, and Yūi shot him a grateful half-smile as he took it in his.

“We can’t use magic if we don’t want him to find us,” Yūi said. Fai nodded with a small grimace.

“Shall I do the honors?”

Yūi squeezed his hand.

“Let’s do it together.” They both raised their staves in unison and wrote out their half of the spell, their magic so alike that the edges blended together seamlessly.

“Time to go see the Witch!”

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to hear what you thought of this. Critique, ideas, compliments, and kudos, I love them all.  
> Just know that updates on this will be sporadic, and will likely only happen if and when each world is completed.
> 
> a huge thank you to my sister for putting up with me bouncing ideas off of her.
> 
> EDIT 1/7/2019 did some minor editing for grammar


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